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I’m not sure what to make of this, and I’m loath to give this man any sort of publicity, however minor. That said, there is no doubt that rather more well-read websites than this will jump on the opportunity to highlight the horrendous implication that someone like Breivik could ‘learn’ to kill using a video game.

A World of Warcraft wedding - while the MMORPG has been responsible for its fair share of marriages and divorces, it does not seem like a training ground for mass murderers.

I confess that Call of Duty, which Breivik claims to have used to “develop [his] target acquisition”, is not to my tastes but to suggest that it could be in some way responsible for what happened in Norway (as some quarters of the press seem to imply) is ridiculous. Breivik’s interest in the fantastical World of Warcraft is also dredged up, as if playing a game featuring orcs, gnomes and night elves could somehow prepare him for the very real and truly horrifying act of mass murder. That the 10 million other WoW subscribers aren’t using the game as some sort of murderous training simulator suggests that it has little to do with the actions of an evil, deluded man.

Some early ’90s video game humour, which serves mainly to highlight the apparent preposterousness of the idea of learning from video games, or ‘edutainment’ as this unholy alliance was referred to at the time.

You really shouldn't tell fibs about dead animals, Max

Of course, this is LucasArts‘ legendary 1993 point and click adventure, Sam & Max Hit The Road, based on the characters created by Steve Purcell. The ‘edutainment’ (I don’t seem able to type that without the scare quotes) dig is just one of many brilliant jokes to be found in this classic game’s script (delivered, for the first time, entirely by voice actors). Still, I didn’t know who John Muir was until I was inspired to look him up after enjoying this clip. What a nin-cow-poop!

It’s 20 years since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the UK & Ireland. While this event is of little direct relevance to video games and learning, the SNES remains the console that, for me, conjures the fondest memories (with its 8-bit predecessor coming a close second). So, one might argue that the SNES is, at least partly, responsible for my interest in video games in general, and ultimately my PhD. Maybe.

I recall the seemingly endless wait for a European release of the 16-bit machine, scouring the monthly games magazines (imagine having to wait a month – or more – for your gaming news, Kotaku and Eurogamer fans!) for information gleaned from the original Japanese release of the Super Famicom, as it was designated in its home territory, and the North American version that followed. I also recall writing and publishing a guide to finding all 96 levels in Super Mario World with a friend. Pre-Internet, this invaluable publication was created on said friend’s Mac, ‘published’ by emptying his dad’s toner cartridge and sold in the back of C&VG and Mean Machines magazines. While this effort represents my first attempt at writing about video games, it’s unlikely that my current institution will be demanding its inclusion in our next REF submission.

These personal, anecdotal and ultimately dull recollections, however, are not why I remember the Super NES so fondly. Put simply, the Super Nintendo’s allure lay in the games. Stone-cold 16-bit classics include the aforementioned Super Mario World, my favourite Zelda title, A Link to the Past, the original Super Mario Kart and a host of spectacular third-party games (Secret of Mana and Super Castlevania IV come to my mind: others would no doubt point to the likes of Street Fighter II and Chrono Trigger).

Luckily, I still have my SNES, proudly presented in my neatly arranged display of past Nintendo hardware at home (my wife thinks this is *awesome*). The Wii’s Virtual Console also provides an alternative (and legal…) means of sampling the classic SNES library. However, if you are keen to get a slice of authentic Super Nintendo action, you will find a brand new machine costs just £899 on Amazon (at time of writing) – small price to pay for the Greatest Video Game Console Ever.

Sugata Mitra’s work was brought to my attention by one (or possibly both, I can’t quite remember now) of my supervisors. On the surface, it might not seem so closely related to video games and learning, but there are actually (I think) many interesting ideas and questions contained in Mitra’s work that connect it to the area in which I am interested. Not least, there is strong evidence of self-directed learning here and – perhaps even more significantly – the children involved in the learning are having fun.

Sugata Mitra's Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning

The video below is short, but I am currently reading have just read Mitra’s TED book, Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning, which also details the author’s efforts to educate children in rural India by simply placing an ATM-like, Internet-connected PC in the middle of the street. Local children – entirely unsupervised – first taught themselves how to use the computer, then began using the web browser to educate themselves about various topics (in English, it should be noted – not their native tongue). Mitra went on to expand on this idea, which the video illustrates.

While the book is also quite brief, it’s a really interesting read. I do wonder about how ‘deep’ some of the learning described by Mitra really is (would these children be able to apply Pythagoras’ theorem outside of the learning environment?*), but the results are impressive and the ‘Granny Cloud’ idea that followed on from the original Hole in the Wall work seems rather inspired – see the video below, or check out the book, for more.

If I thought anyone was reading this blog, I would ask what others thought of Mitra’s approach. Am I being overly sceptical when I query the ‘deep learning’ on display here?

I’m finally officially registered as a PhD student at HATII. I have a pair of excellent supervisors lined up, in the form of Dr Susan Stuart (more informative personal website here) and Dr Steve Draper (see here for much more information). Susan is a philosopher at HATII and Steve is based in Psychology. Both are likely to keep me on my toes, and bring a wealth of experience and wisdom from their many years of teaching and research. Better start doing some work now, then…

* This is a ridiculous phrase. Believed to have been coined by rapper Ice Cube in the early Nineties – more than a decade after Nintendo’s ill-tempered monkey started chucking barrels – it has since grown in popularity on the Internet (of course) and in ‘hip’ pop culture. It was recently used to promote the video game-influenced movie version of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and subsequently (and rather retrospectively) trademarked by Nintendo to drum up interest for Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii, 30 years after they didn’t think of it in the first place.

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Very quick post for a worthy cause. The Humble Bundle is an opportunity to pay what you want for a collection of awesome Android games (including productivity-decimating Canabalt, on Android for the first time) with a proportion of the proceeds going to charitable causes (Child’s Play or the Electronic Frontier Foundation). Pay more than the average price (currently around $6) and you’ll get the also-excellent Swords & Soldiers thrown in. Finally, you can also get hold of Steam keys for these games, meaning they are unlocked for play on your PC or Mac (they also work on Linux).

Five games—never-before-seen on Android—for your phones and tablets. We’re bringing the hottest mobile entertainment to your Android devices. Pay-what-you-want to get Zen Bound 2, Canabalt, Cogs, and Avadon: The Black Fortress (tablets only). And if you pay more than the average price, you’ll also get the vibrant, side-scrolling strategy game Swords & Soldiers.

Now, it’s not clear from this slightly vague statement what – of value – the student feels he has learned from playing Assassin’s Creed, but it’s clear he believes he has gained something from the experience. What might be interesting to find out is whether he subsequently sought any more authoritative information on the “historical figures and real events” encountered in the game, from alternative sources.

The rest of the article deals mostly with Pokémon (presenting the series of Manga-inspired games as something of a Nineties phenomenon, although a Western-friendly version of the game was not released in the US until the tail end of the decade). I had not considered the educational value of Pokémon until now (it’s one of the few Nintendo franchises I’ve never really become obsessed with), but perhaps it warrants some investigation. From the article:

“Marquez [the student in question] said there’s a lot of intelligence and patience that goes into Pokémon games. He researches stats, some of which involve complex math equations, before compiling a Pokémon team.”

Marquez continues:

“I will sit down with a pen and paper… and make sure my team is well-balanced. You can breed Pokémon to battle.”

Pokémon: it's educational!

My main issue with the article, however, probably lies with the fact that late-Nineties games such as Pokémon are considered retro. Contrary to what the seems to sophomore think (and I may be reading more into his comments than is strictly sane), his is not the first generation of adults (if we can be called that) to have grown up with video games.

The findings of research by cognitive neuroscientist Daphne Bavelierat at the University of Rochester, New York, have appeared in a number of media outlets recently, including the Wall Street Journal.

According to the article, the research has found that those who played ‘action-based’ video games demonstrated a 25% increase in decision-making speed, with no loss in accuracy. Bavelierat is quoted as saying “These are not the games you would think are mind-enhancing”, suggesting that even the rather violent games so beloved of “the kids” (such as Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, or Animal Crossing) might have some beneficial side-effects.

Also from the Wall Street Journal article:

Scientists also found that women—who make up about 42% of computer and video game players—were better able to mentally manipulate 3D objects, a skill at which men are generally more adept.

FemShep: less able to mentally manipulate 3D objects than her male equivalent?

This is an interesting generalisation, of course. As a man (of sorts), I readily concede that my wife – a woman, no less – is generally better at “3D manipulation”, which I’m assuming refers to skills such as driving a car, hanging a picture, and the like. She also plays significantly fewer video games than I.

Anyway, I’m unsure if these recent stories originate from any newly-published work (Bavelierat has worked and published in this area extensively in the past, and is well worth reading, in my opinion) but I’ve asked the WSJ if they can direct me towards the source for this particular article, in case there’s a new paper I’ve missed.

In the mean time, I thought it might be fun to post this sort of thing, in case my potential PhD supervisor was to read it. I imagine he’d have an opinion…

One of my areas of interest is how commercial video games – not the educational efforts you remember playing on the BBC Micro at school, but the big “triple A” commercial releases such as Civilization and Assassin’s Creed – have already helped make us better-educated, well-rounded people. For this view to be accepted, however, it often feels as though the image of video games, and that of the people who play them, must first be defended, and explained.

My office colleagues, for example, provide some not inconsiderable evidence for the defence, and certainly don’t fit the image of the borderline sociopathic, culturally myopic Neanderthals so often associated with “gamers” in the media, and in the eyes of deluded, corruptpoliticians. In an office of four, three of us are men (or, at least, very large boys) in our thirties, who have grown up with video games. Like the current generation of ‘digital natives’, for whom Google, Wikipedia and Facebook are part of the furniture, our generation is arguably that of the ‘gaming native’.

Weaned on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sinclair Spectrum and Acorn Electron – and still playing today on our PS3s, Xbox 360s and Wiis – we’ve pretty much turned out, well, alright. We all hold down jobs in academia and between us have degrees in Law, English, Geology and Information Technology, plus one PhD almost in the bag and another about to begin. We all have partners, children, mortgages and a slight propensity for beer. We’re pretty normal, and officially Not Sociopathic.

One of our number, who admits to learning what the Manhattan Project was from Civilization*, is something of an oracle on all things historical and cultural – particularly when it comes to the Classics. He’s also equally comfortable with the idea of decapitating a Goblin Warlord in Oblivion, or shooting a fleeing suspect in the back in L.A. Noire. The second of my officemates, one of the most erudite gentlemen you’ll ever meet, is equally adept at explaining binary translation technologies as he is recounting the bloody demise of some on-screen foe, or contributing to the body of online Dark Souls knowledge. These two sets of skills complement one another: possessing both has not yet resulted in bloody violence spilling over into our research activities.

And what of that fourth colleague, so far unaccounted for? Well, she has learned to tolerate the game-related office chat, and become quite adept at filtering out the admittedly inane discussions that focus on the merits of a +5 Drake Sword versus the +4 Lightning Spear. One could argue that video games, however indirectly, have blessed her with an understanding of the art of selective listening.

* He’s keen to stress that he learned this as a teenager, who shouldn’t necessarily have known the de facto name of the nuclear programme that gave the world atomic bombs.